[MRCA] Eisenhower Farm WW II Reenactment Event AAR

[Matthew Halsey]

 I am beyond frustrated with most of the shows around me, including Eisenhower.I am a one man band with an SOE display, including an original suitcase spy radio.I cannot get much, if any, interest from folks in the US for a display as I am not associated with any recognized organization.Well, yes that was the way that SOE operated!
I have also tried joining a French Resistance group but, despite their acknowledgement of what I can bring to the group, I have still yet to be invited to any events for over a year.
It would have been nice to operate a CW contact using your gear and mine.I also have a working HRO which I could set up as the UK base.
Sorry for the rant.  I am passionate about SOE and educating folks on their critical and highly risky role in WW2, but I just cant seem to get any opportunity to share with the public.
Matt
    On Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at 09:45:49 AM EDT, Ray Fantini via MRCA <mrca at mailman.qth.net> wrote:  
 
  
Great job, often think today we may have more in common along the lines of shared interest with the Military Vehicle and collectors and reenactors community then what currently passes for the Ham radio community. In these days of micro size transceivers and automated contacts. But at the end of the day if you want to use your radios on the air you got to have the license, and we do have a thriving Boat anchor and AM community.
 
Doing just WW2 you have a harder road to travel. Your limited to AM or CW and unless you are using some level of power and a good antenna your not going to get much love on 3885 beyond local contacts. Hamvention always has a good turnout of local AM QSO on 3885 and MRCA Gilbert will be beating the drum this weekend but unless you are doing a medium or high power set up in the field would not expect any success. Only time I have pulled off a QSO on 3885 under twenty watts was at the home QTH with a good antenna. Least that’s been my results.
 
If you move a couple generations up, like Korean War or Vietnam you can start to use way better radios . The T-195/R-392 (GRC-19) can give you a 100 watts in the field or in my case running a GRC-106 allows you SSB and high power and with that gear its more of a real possibility of checking into existing on air nets. I regularly take part in things like the MMRCG RTTY Net on forty and the 7296 and sometimes 5357 USB Nets on Saturdays from shows, just running something like a BC-654 into a small vertical is not going to get you much more then local communications. 
 
The issue I found is that the reenactor community can sometimes get sticky about things, maybe my biggest complaint about the Reading show where they push this WW2 thing only mantra. One of my favorite local shows is the annual Delaware Goes to War event held at Fort Miles and have been doing that for years now but the local historical group the Fort Miles Historical Association has strict rules about it being a ww2  only and because I work directly with the state park people I and several other post war vehicles are allowed to set up only on the periphery of the event but not in the main compound.  Talked with the people up at Reading before about bringing my Vietnam – Cold War road show up and been told no thanks.
 
This weekend will be the event at Gilbert, the Red Ball MVPA Show and Sale and for twenty years now they have supported the MRCA and our military radio show and field exercise in the Howell building and we are a mixed event not just limited to WW2 stuff but will have equipment there and operating that represent all generations. The field exercises will feature a large sixty meter net on Friday that includes multipole backpack and field radios and the ability for them to net with distant stations at the same time. We typically have at least a half dozen local participants on air and at least as many distant stations take part. We will also have a 3885 AM Net but see that as being just a local thing like our 51.0 and 144.25 opps.
 
Anyway its great to see what your doing and hope this encourages others to get out in the field also.
 
  
 
Ray F/KA3EKH
 
  
 
  
 
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net <milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net>On Behalf Of Mark K3MSB
Sent: Monday, September 22, 2025 6:46 PM
To: ARC5 <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>; Military Radio Collectors Association (mrca at mailman.qth.net) <mrca at mailman.qth.net>; List Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Milsurplus] Eisenhower Farm WW II Reenactment Event AAR
 
  
 
  
 
Hi Everyone.

I spent last weekend participating in the World War II Weekend reenactment event at Eisenhower National Historic Site in Gettysburg PA.

Photos and videos:

www.k3msb.com/Eisenhower_Farm_2025/setup1.jpg
www.k3msb.com/Eisenhower_Farm_2025/df_1.MOV
www.k3msb.com/Eisenhower_Farm_2025/df_2.MOV
www.k3msb.com/Eisenhower_Farm_2025/cw1.mp4

Objectives: 
Educate people on the HF radios used on Allied Bomber Aircraft in WW II.
Describe the differences between the Command and Liaison radios.
Demonstrate netting a receiver & transmitter using a frequency Meter.
Demonstrate how a DF unit works, and try to receive a real navigation beacon.

Equipment used:
SCR-247N.   Everything is dynamotor driven.
BC-221-K Frequency Meter
Bendix DU-1 Direction Finding Unit, ARA CBY-46145 Broadcast band (500 to 1500 Kc) navigation receiver, SCR-247N BC-453 Beacon band (190 to 550 Kc) navigation receiver.  All mounted on a $3 Hamfest special trashed-out FT-220-A    The dynamotor supplies power to the DF unit and either receiver.

What did I expect to happen:
Use the SCR-274N to talk to others at the event (or on 75 M)
Use the DU-1 and associated receiver to illustrate how a pilot found his position, and give a general explanation of DF-ing.
Demo the SCR-274N receiver when the generator was not on to power the transmitter.

What Happened:
There were no other active HF setups at the event for me to communicate with using the SCR-274N, and I was not able to raise anyone on 3885.
Demo of the DF setup worked extremely well and was well received.    I was able to demo the MW receiver during the mornings as well as the BCB during the entire event.

What went well and why:
As at the Reading Airshow in June, the DF demo went well.  I had the ATA receiver tuned to an AM broadcast station and I explained how the operator would manually turn the DU-1 loop to find the maximum signal then report the bearing to the pilot (yes, I know they went for the null, but I didn't think that detail was relevant for my purposes).  I explained that the DU-1 loop was normally mounted on the fuselage with an extension shaft to the operator's table, and I showed them the scales the radio operator used to determine the bearing to the station. I had an MN-36  Football next to the DU-1 for static display, and I explained that there was a loop inside the MN-36  that was motorized and worked the same way as the manual DU-1.

I was delighted to be able to receive BZJ on 328 Kc during both mornings;  it is about 50 nm NE of the reenactment site.  I explained what an NDB was, how it was used, and the importance of IDing the beacon with the Morse identifier.

I pointed out the dynamotor to the right of the Navigation receivers and the big TX dynamotor on the SCR-274N and explained their function – convert  28V from the aircraft electrical bus to the 200 volts needed by the vacuum tubes.  I used a pair of 100 AH 12V LiFePO4 batteries in series to power the receiver and loop.     I

I used a 2nd pair of Lead/Acid batteries to power the SCR-274N receivers.   These were in series across my Astron 28V power supply to provide startup current for the transmitter (which turns on each time the mic button is pressed. in Voice mode.).   Without the batteries the breaker will trip in the Astron power supply.

I explained the function of the command sets (short range air to ground / air to air) and contrasted that to the function of the Liaison radios (long distance). I showed them the inside of a command receiver as many of the younger people had never seen a vacuum tube. I explained what each box did and how they could be located in different parts of the airplane, and what the pilot's receiver and transmitter control boxes did.

Instead of using my MFJ Tuner and my custom box containing a 4:1 UNUN and series matching capacitor, I just used a wire antenna and counterpoise.   To determine max power, I used an old Heathkit field strength meter and tuned for max reading.  This worked well at my house with the antenna straight and the counterpoise running underneath it, giving me about 100 mA Ip on the SCR-274N.   At the event, the antenna was bent and the counterpoise only ran under it for about 10 feet,  and I was only able to get 50 mA of Ip.   Still,  50 mA of Ip would be sufficient to communicate over the event area......

What can be improved and how?

As already mentioned, there were no other reenactment groups on the field to talk to with the SCR-274N.  I made a point to look for BC-611's and found about 4 of them.    For 2 of them, the people watching their setups had no idea who owned the 611's or anything about them.  For the 3rd, the fellow had the guts removed and stuffed with a modern radio – I'm not sure to play a recording through or GMRS.   The 4th was owned by a fellow at a Navy display.   He knew what the 611 did and said it was original and he wanted to use it but needed to address the battery issue.   We discussed options on that.  He said he has two 611s but doesn't bring the 2nd as there is never anyone around to use them.  We exchanged emails and plan to work together for next year's event.   There was another fellow there with working radios in his Jeep,  but they were on 29 Mc which I don't have.   He said he had radios that would work on 75M, but he never brings them as there is nobody around to talk to. So, I took down his name as well.

It seems to be a common theme that people don't bring radios as there is nobody to talk to,  and of course there is nobody to talk to if people don't bring radios. I need to be more active on the reenactment social media pages and try to get people to bring radios to the various regional events so that we can have a net going.    I'm planning to do that over the winter.

Get rid of the power supply in my BC-221K and use a battery with a DC-DC converter so that the unit will be portable.   This is a “nice to have”.....  

Conclusion:
 
As with the Reading Airshow, the DF Demos were a hit, and people liked hearing CW from the 40M SCR-274N receiver.    The demos of netting the receiver and transmitter to the frequency meter were well received.
 
  
 
In general people like seeing 85 year old stuff that still works, whether it's a radio or a Jeep.  I don't think they care if I can talk to anybody (but I do.....).
 

I had one couple that were taking detailed photos of my radios as they said their uncle is 102 years old and was a radio operator during WW  II.   I hope seeing the photos brings him fond memories.

73 Mark K3MSB
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